Oeiras, Portugal – Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro were among the quarterfinal winners Thursday at the Portugal Open.
The third-seeded Pavlyuchenkova outlasted fellow Russian Elena Vesnina, 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-3) and will next take on Switzerland's Romina Oprandi, who pulled off a 6-2, 6-2 rout of Russian veteran Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Oprandi had never beaten Kuznetsova in three previous meetings, but on Thursday never faced a break point and finished off the two-time Grand Slam champion in a mere 64 minutes. Pavlyuchenkova, meanwhile, needed 2 hours and 46 minutes to beat the seventh-seeded Vesnina.
Suarez Navarro, the fourth seed, thumped Puerto Rico's Monica Puig, 6-2, 6-4, to set up a semifinal against Estonia's Kaia Kanepi, a 6-4, 6-3 winner over Japanese veteran Ayumi Morita.
Kanepi beat Suarez Navarro in last year's final when the tournament was played in Estoril.
This week's champion will pocket $42,000.
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